Thursday, July 1, 2010

Nike tells girls watching the World Cup: You don't count.

This "thank you" Nike Soccer video shows boys thanking the US Men's National Team "for playing like Americans." In casting ONLY boys, Nike once again makes clear that the girls and women who follow the sport in the US don't count. I am trying very hard not to transfer my anger about Nike's sexist and frankly lame ads to the USMNT itself. These ads are approved by someone at the US Soccer Federation and damned if I am not going to call them up myself. Their general number: (312) 808-1300. Please give them a piece of your mind, too. You can also leave a comment on the USSF National Men's Team blog (Paving the Way). They won't know how we feel about this stuff unless we complain.

[I posted a comment on the NMT blog, where the video is posted. My original comment - respectful, but critical - has been removed by readers, and was reposted by USSF. The responses to that post are still up. You can share your opinion with the folks at USSF here.]

The US Women's National Team (also sponsored by Nike) needs to get a divorce, and quick.

13 comments:

It's a pretty ad, but without any real depth. Clearly scripted, that takes away from the fundamental point of the video (...that American soccer don't need to be forced to watch soccer anymore). Ok. Then why blatantly script it?

Nike doesn't appear to have gone to much effort to find real soccer fans, they created characterizations of their impression of American soccer fans. Normally that wouldn't bother me, as it is a commercial, but since it's supposed to be a Thank You from the Heart of Real Americans...a bit more documentary style would have been nice.

Have the US MNT and WNT ever done a Nike ad together? Or has that relationship always been two beds, one room?

Hmmm... While I agree that it is poor marketing, I think you might be overstating the case a bit. More than sexist, it just seems narrow-minded to me. As a male supporter of the US Women's National Team, I'd expect a similar Nike ad after the Women's World Cup to exclude boys. It's neither right nor wrong, just shortsighted corporate-think.

"As a male supporter of the US Women's National Team, I'd expect a similar Nike ad after the Women's World Cup to exclude boys."

See, and the thing for me is (as another male supporter of the women's game), if that happened it'd be OK, because women and transfolk are so regularly shut out of anything involving sport especially when it involves a big corporation like Nike, that having space/depictions/ads (if we have to have ads) with just women is GREAT. It expands the realm of what's possible and lifts up people who have been systematically denied visibility and existence for far too long. On the other hand, soccer being just about dudes, with depictions of only dudes is OLD and I'm sick of it. It is also just not as fun or entertaining.

Hey, thanks for the link! Even leaving aside the gender issues, people were talking about this ad like it was some amazing breakthrough, and ... no. It's cheap sentiment and cliches about "playing like an American" and how we don't dive. The fact that Nike appears to think inspiration and pride divides neatly along gender lines just makes it worse.

My wife and I have both written numerous emails to Nike regarding the USMNT and sexism. Nike doesn't make official USMNT jerseys in womens sizes, but only in mens and boys. Since my wife wanted to support both teams, she wanted a jersey for the MNT. We emailed asking if they had a line, but we've yet to receive any substantive responses. Just emails thanking us for our interest in the USMNT.

I'm ashamed to wear the Nike swoosh when I'm supporting my national teams so I buy my soccer shirts from Who Are Ya designs and Objectivio.

This ad seems like a textbook case of the sort of sexism Nike peddles. It divides fandom into male and female segments. Boys are supposed to support the MNT and girls the WNT. What's not sexist about that?

I've been following the discussion here about this ad and took your suggestions to write both US Soccer and Nike. Earlier today, one of my favorite soccer site posted this ad and asked for people's thoughts and I was glad to see that almost immediately, fans were criticizing the lack of female players and fans in the video.

Also in the spirit of Nike and ignoring girls, they sold replica jerseys only in women's sizes. Fortunately the ran ridiculously small, so my 10 yo niece was adequately uniformed. Even still, no kids' shirts? My 7 and 5 yo nieces were s.o.l.

Feedback? Let me know what you think. Just an FYI: all comments posted to this blog are recorded, whether I publish them or not. I do not publish generally hateful comments - whether they be directed at me or at players and teams or other readers. I appreciate reader feedback, especially from those whose contributions add nuance and complexity to the story.

About From a Left Wing

Jennifer Doyle lives in Los Angeles and teaches at the University of California, Riverside. She wrote From a Left Wing from late 2007 until late 2013. Scroll through categories below for writing about gender, the international women's game, Los Angeles fútbol and more. You can read the preface to her most recent book here: Hold It Against Me: Difficulty and Emotion in Contemporary Art. Sometime in the near future, this whole blog will be taken down and archived, as she prepares to publish a book anchored in this writing.